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downthetubes is undergoing some main site refurbishment...

Saturday, 7th October 2017

The downthetubes news blog was assimilated into our main site back in 2013, but we're glad you're here, because that's currently undergoing some under the bonnet refurb! So we've brought this blog back from the dead to tide us over.

We expect to be back up and running next week, just before the 2017 Lakes International Comic Art Festival - see you there?

Hop over to www.downthetubes.net for other British comics news, comic creating guides, interviews and much more!

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Four shiny new Commandos including a new Convict Commandos story

Four new shiny Commandos, including a new 'Convict Commados' story, 'Mask of Death' by Alan Hebden with art from Benet, are on sale today - in newsagents and online. As usual, the releases include two carefully selected reprint titles - chosen by the Commando editorial team to mark the title's impressive 50th year.

The Convict Commandos - Jelly Jakes, Smiler Dawson, Titch Mooney - and their leader Guy Tenby are back in action. This time they are planning to snatch a scientist from under the noses of the Nazis in occupied Europe. It’s no easy job and, with treachery afoot, the prison sentences they’re trying to avoid begin to look a very tempting alternative.
The second adventure for the latest band of Commando heroes.

Most people would think that nothing much happened in the peaceful village of Helmsbeath, situated on a remote island on Scotland’s North West coast. And most people would have been right to think that…until the fateful day in late 1944 when Helmsbeath was invaded. Invaded by the armed and dangerous crew of a Japanese C3 submarine and the crazed Nazi scientist who was with them!

In the steaming jungles of Burma, man has a thousand enemies… the wild animals, the snakes and poisonous insects, the deadly fevers. But the fighting British jungle patrols had an enemy more deadly that any of these…the creeping Japanese soldiers who could appear from nowhere and sow the lead seeds of death before melting again into the waiting green background. But Sergeant Tom Flynn had his own way of silencing the Banzai cries of those Sons of Nippon. With a handful of men and a heart full of courage he fought his way through them - and with him he brought a strange prize… ten million pounds in solid gold.

"What hits you most about this story is the cover," says Commando editor Calum Laird, who picked out this title for reprint. "Ken Barr’s image leaps clean off the page and you can almost hear that soldier screaming blue murder. Inside, the story is of a jungle trek involving an elephant and train. It shouldn’t work, but it does picking up pace throughout. "Artist Cecil Rigby was a Commando regular from 1961 until No 3272 in late 1999 - a total of around 150 books - and he well captures the atmosphere of the jungle and the fury in this one."

Commando 4382 Six Of The Best
Originally Commando No 490 (July 1970), re-issued as No 1379 (January 1980)
Story: David Motton Art: Ramon de la Fuente Cover Art: Penalva

Six men - five private soldiers who couldn’t do a thing right and a brand-new Second Lieutenant who had never been in action. Left behind as a rearguard just in case the Jerries showed up, they landed in a hotter spot than anyone had bargained for - and became the most unlikely heroes of the Second World War!

"There are many types of hero but, in my opinion, the most interesting kind is the unlikely hero - the underdog," says Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor, of this reprint issue. "And, as you may have guessed from the title, in this brilliant tale you get six for the price of one (which, back in 1980 was a mere 12p — even at today’s prices we reckon we’re still good value). "So please join me in rooting for half-a-dozen ordinary (if admittedly a bit useless) blokes, left behind as a desert rearguard, determined to prove that they’ve got what it takes to be the best."

• Official Commando web site: http://www.commandocomics.com/• Click here for subscription information or write to: D.C. Thomson & Co Ltd, The Subscribers Department, Commando Library, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL or Freephone (UK only) 0800 318846 • Commando is also available for iPad and iPhone. The apps are free to download through the Apple iTunes App Store and a digital subscription is priced at £4.99 per month, compared to a £99 annual print subscription. For those not sure there are four free issues to download prior to making a purchase.• Commando Comics iPhone App on iTunes• Commando Comics iPad App on iTunes

The site downthetubes.net, which began publishing in 1999, is edited by John Freeman whose credits include editor of Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, Star Wars Magazine, and Marvel UK titles such as Overkill, Death's Head II, Warheads and others. He's currently editor of the upcoming Strip Magazine for Print Media Productions.

About the Writers:

• Matthew Badham has written features for Judge Dredd: The Megazine, the Forbidden Planet International blog and more

• Jeremy Briggs contributes news, reviews, interviews and historical articles on British comics. He is a guest writer on Steve Holland's UK comics history blog, Bear Alley, and has written for Comics International, TV Zone, Spaceship Away and Omnivistascope.

• David Hailwood has written comic strips for various publications, including TOXIC, Accent UK, Bulletproof and Futurequake. He also writes comedy material for TV, and regularly contributes to the Temple APA (a showcase for UK comic writers and artists).

• Andy Luke is a writer who draws: he's s created the eponymous Andy Luke's Comic Book, Gran, Absence: a comic about epilepsy, Hold the Phones, It's Alex Jones, and graphic novel, The Watch Thief. He's written about comics too, mainly for Bugpowder.com, and has been involved with the Caption comics festival in Oxford. He currently lives in Belfast with a large box of pasta and a 7ft tall cigarette, and can be found online at http://andy-luke.com and http://awriterwhodraws.com

• Ian Wheeler is a freelance writer who also edited the highly-acclaimed British comics fanzine Eagle Flies Again.